No threat from China, Arunachal border peaceful: Dorjee Khandu

Shillong, Nov 10 (IANS) The situation along the India-China border is “peaceful” and Arunachal Pradesh does not face any Chinese threat as of now, Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said Wednesday.

“The situation along the border is peaceful. There is no Chinese threat at the moment and our relations with China have been friendly,” Khandu told reporters at Assam Regimental Centre after the first Arunachal Scouts battalion was raised.

Raised on the concept of ’sons of the soil’, The Arunachal Scouts battalion will undergo a gradual process of growth before becoming operationally active.

“The raising of Arunachal Scouts will help the country in defending its border,” Khandu said, while apprising them of the challenges that lay ahead of them and expressed confidence that the unit would live up to the expectations of the people and the country.

After the 1962 Sino-Indian War, the Ladakh Scouts were raised in June 1963. It gained the status of a full-fledged infantry regiment after it became one of the first units to take part in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

Asked to comment on Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s statement that China was preparing to attack India, Khandu said that the central government was well aware of the developments and that there was no such intrusion.

On Tuesday, the former defence minister said in the Lok Sabha that he had “specific” inputs that China was preparing to attack India “anytime soon” and was “daily” occupying an inch of the country’s territory.

Yadav also urged the government to take the China threat seriously because “everybody knows what happened in 1962″.

“China is laying claim on several of our states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and also Ladakh,” he had said.

The India-China border along Arunachal Pradesh is defined by the McMahon Line, now known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as its alignment is disputed.

India and China fought a bitter border war in 1962, with Chinese troops advancing deep into Arunachal Pradesh and inflicting heavy casualties on poorly armed Indian troops.

The border dispute with China was inherited by India from the British rulers, who hosted a 1914 conference with the Tibetan and Chinese governments that set the border in what is now Arunachal Pradesh.

China has never recognised the McMahon Line and claims 90,000 sq km, including nearly all of Arunachal Pradesh. India accuses China of occupying 8,000 sq km in Jammu and Kashmir.

After 1962, tensions flared again in 1986, with Indian and Chinese forces clashing in the Sumdorong Chu valley of Arunachal Pradesh. Chinese troops reportedly built a helipad, in the valley leading to the fresh skirmishes.